Second place was claimed by Viktors Valainis of the Greens and Farmers Union (speaking 87 times), Ivars Zariņš of the Harmony faction managed 56 times (including one memorable live haircut), while former champ Aldis Gobzems (non-aligned) was curiously off the pace in this session, crossing the line a distant fourth having aired his opinions a mere 48 times, not even half Stepaņenko's prodigious output.
Making up the field were Sergejs Dolgopolovs and Regīna Ločmele (43 times each), Vyacheslav Dombrovskis (41 times), Jānis Vucāns (36 times), Edgars Tavars (34 times) and Ļubova Švecova (31 times).
Interestingly, none of the top ten speakers came from the ruling five-party coalition.
In this year's winter session which ran from January 7 to March 29, the 13th Saeima adopted 56 laws: 4 completely new laws and amendments to 52 existing laws.
During this time, MPs met for 40 extraordinary sessions. They took place remotely on the e-Saeima platform, taking into account the restrictions and precautionary measures imposed due to the pandemic caused by Covid-19.
During the winter session, 68 draft laws were submitted to the commissions, of which 51 have been submitted by the Cabinet of Ministers, 6 by Saeima deputies, and 11 draft laws have been submitted by the Saeima commissions.
When working with the submitted draft laws and considering them in the second and third readings, the Saeima evaluated a total of 1,344 proposals.
The spring session begins April 6, though extraordinary sessions can be called before then as required.
